death penalty

Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler says the state has lost the ability to carry out a death sentence, even against a death row inmate who was sentenced before the state banned capital punishment last year.

There are reports that Governor Martin O’Malley is considering commuting death sentences for Maryland’s four death row inmates. The governor has reached out to victims’ family members in the cases. Some are begging him to leave the convicted killers on death row.

John Booth-El had been on death row for almost three decades for the grisly killing of an elderly couple in Baltimore. Now his family and his victims’ loved ones are finally finding closure in his death.

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, an outspoken death penalty opponent considering a 2016 presidential run, has yet to commute the sentences of the state’s five death row inmates despite his role in pushing a repeal of capital punishment that takes effect next month.

The state of Maryland will no longer execute criminals convicted of the most heinous crimes. Governor Martin O’Malley officially signed the death penalty repeal into law Thursday morning, along with dozens of other bills.